As a fledgling orchid nursery startup in 1974, Japan Orchid, Inc. was among the first nurseries in Japan to "go organic." Being entrepreneurial-spirited and not happy with existing synthetic orchid fertilizers, we experimented with all kinds of ingredients, creating our own fertilizer with locally-sourced and plentiful organic ingredients, including bat guano, rice bran, shrimp shell, sesame and peanut meal. Not ever intending to sell outside our own nursery, we just gave it the generic name "Be-1 Pellets." We had been following amino acids research being done by a couple labs for many years with great interest. By the time the joint venture ran its course in 1995, there was little interest for organic inputs, especially when cheap alternatives from giant fertilizer companies were readily available. We jumped at the opportunity to incorporate the amino acids, purchasing the rights to the fermenting process and adding them to our pellets. Meantime, the generic name stuck and, since we still used the pellets only in-house, we put them into ugly, bright orange bags.

In the years since, we began selling outside to our customers wanting the same orchid food we used. Our customers found that the Be-1 Pellets were not just great for orchids, but also worked exceptionally well on seemingly all plants.

Never intending to sell outside of our nursery, the generic "Be-1 Pellets" name and ugly orange packaging are a part of our humble legacy.

Back to Be Organics.

By 2010, our local customer base was continuing to grow and feedback was great (for more than just orchids). Tourists from overseas also started visiting our nursery, so we decided it was time to obtain organic credentials and see if there might be wider appeal.

U.S.-based OMRI was the best recognized (and strictest) organic credential, so we applied for OMRI-listing. After successfully earning, we heard about the equally challenging California Organic (CDFA-OIM) Organic Input Material registration and .

Today, we have formed "Be Organics" to oversee manufacturing, distribution and new product development.

What started as an in-house organic fertilizer continues to gain fans.It only took us 40 years to get to this point of sharing the power of our organic pellets with you.